Schwarzenegger praises McCain and Obama

Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Photo: Brant Ward

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Governor Schwarzenegger was greeted by Assembly members as he entered their chambers to give his speech.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered his "state of the state" speech Tuesday afternoon in front of a packed Assembly room at the state capital in Sacramento.
{By Brant Ward/San Francisco Chronicle}1/8/08 less

governor_041.JPG
Governor Schwarzenegger was greeted by Assembly members as he entered their chambers to give his speech.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered his "state of the state" speech ... more

Photo: Brant Ward

Schwarzenegger praises McCain and Obama

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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, weighing in on the presidential race, said that both Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are on the right track in "talking about bringing people together" across partisan lines.

And, he said that the high profile and competing endorsements the Kennedy family - not including his wife Maria Shriver - in the Democratic presidential contest represents a dramatic departure from past years.

"What's interesting is that, within the family, for the first time you have different opinions," he said. "I've been in the family 30 years, and I've never seen that...that's really the story - what created that, and how Caroline and Teddy hooked up with the same opinion, and Kathleen ended up going with Hillary."

"I don't know the whole scoop, because it just happened, " he laughed. "But eventually we'll find out."

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Schwarzenegger was referring to the news that Shriver's cousins, Caroline Kennedy and Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, and her uncle, Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy endorsed Obama Monday in a dramatic event at American University. But other family members, including former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, has endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and said her brother Bobby and sister Kerry do as well.

Schwarzenegger declined to address a possible endorsement by his wife, saying "you'll have to ask her yourself."

But sources in the office of the California First Lady, who is the daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver - and the niece to Ted Kennedy, the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the late president John F. Kennedy - said today that Shriver currently has no plans to endorse in the 2008 presidential race.

Shriver political sympathies could be valuable to both Clinton and Obama in the race: she is an active First Lady who has been a leading advocate of women's issues - and she is also a good friend to talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who has endorsed Obama.

Schwarzenegger, during a wide-ranging session with the Chronicle editorial board, also declined to formally endorse a GOP presidential candidate. But the California governor didn't rule it out - and came closest when he said that McCain should be congratulated for working across party lines to get things done, despite being hammered by conservative pundits around the country as being too friendly with Democrats. .

"I think that you should never worry about being hammered," he said. "If you want to lead, there will always be people against it. I hear this kind of stuff all the time."

McCain "is smart to continue talking about those issues. It is smart for Obama to continue talking about those issues, crossing the line," Schwarzenegger said. "You will see worldwide, more and more people are going to look at that as a way of bringing people together. And there's nowhere more important to do that than in America."

Schwarzenegger said he will appear with President Bush at an economic event in the Los Angeles area this week. And he will also be present at the live televised GOP debate from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, where he is expected to escort Nancy Reagan to watch the final meeting of the candidates before the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primaries.

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